I. Field of the Invention
The present invention generally relates to dental shade guides and, more particularly, to a dental shade guide system for accurately matching an artificial tooth coloring to a patient's natural teeth.
II. Description of the Prior Art
Dental shade guides serve a very useful purpose in assisting a dentist in selecting the proper shade for an artificial tooth in making a dental restoration. In assisting him to select the proper shade of material, the dentist employs a shade guide carrying a number of artificial teeth of the various shades available, the procedure being that the dentist places the shade guide teeth in front of the patient's natural teeth to select a shade most closely approximating the coloring of the patient's natural teeth. Shade guides, as heretofore known, have a number of shortcomings in that they are not normally adapted to insure an accurate color matching because of the considerable color variations of natural teeth.
The progress of restorative dentistry can be easily measured by the growing public awareness of its existence as patients are no longer satisfied with dental restoration of merely restoring the function of the lost tooth. The patient now insists that the artificial tooth have a vital and natural appearance; but, for the reasons aforementioned, the area of tooth color matching is impeded due to the lack of availability of a large number of dental shades covering a wide range of colors. The area of tooth color matching also lacks a simple and accurate method for manufacturing such shades.
Known prior art examples of tooth shade guides are disclosed in U.S. Pat. Nos. 537,553; 825,578; and 2,479,543. These patents disclose various dental shade guides which are relevant to applicant's invention. Each of these dental shade guides has deficiencies of the type aforementioned in that they do not enable a dentist to readily compare artificial teeth of varying shades with the patient's natural teeth to enable a dentist to select an artificial tooth which will match the natural teeth with a substantial degree of accuracy.
III. Prior Art Statement
In the opinion of the applicant, the aforementioned prior art constitutes the closest prior art of which the applicant is aware.